


A Song, After Life

by virdant



Category: Glee
Genre: Afterlife, Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Ghosts, Happy Ending, M/M, Mediums, no hurt only comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:54:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25304857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/virdant/pseuds/virdant
Summary: Blaine is a ghost taking care of baby ghosts. Sebastian is the medium who summons him to talk to dead parents.For Seblaine Week 2020 Day 5: Hurt/Comfort
Relationships: Blaine Anderson/Sebastian Smythe
Comments: 10
Kudos: 30
Collections: Seblaine Week 2020





	A Song, After Life

**Author's Note:**

  * For [define_serenity](https://archiveofourown.org/users/define_serenity/gifts).



> me: time to write seblaine week fics and i won't even write about ghosts this time!  
> dana: i like ghosts  
> me: time to write seblaine week fics and i _will_ write about ghosts!
> 
> thank you for the request, i always aim to oblige when people request things from me. here are some ghosts! or rather, here is 1 (one) ghost.
> 
> and for anis: sebastian isn't the ghost this time! and it has a happy ending!

Blaine shows up with a song. There’s a faint humming between Sebastian’s ears, growing louder and more persistent before it resolves into a lullaby, sweet and fond and one that Sebastian’s never heard before, and then Blaine’s standing before Sebastian.

They aren’t alone. Sebastian’s clients today are a young couple who lost their child to leukemia. There had already been many goodbyes, but it hadn’t been enough for them. Usually Sebastian gets parents who survived accidents that their children didn’t. Parents who are looking for once last chance to say goodbye, to apologize, to reassure their children that they love them. These parents aren’t the usual clients that Sebastian gets, but they’re parents to a child, and that means they’re a client, and that means Blaine.

Blaine settles next to Sebastian on the chair he keeps just for Blaine. He’s got a bowtie on—he always has one on, he says that the kids like it, but Sebastian suspects it’s just Blaine’s quirky fashion taste at play. He studies the parents, looking closely at their features, and lights up. “Are they Johnny’s parents?”

Sebastian checks his notes—Blaine gives him a scolding look for not knowing this already—and says, “Yes.” To the parents, he says, “Blaine is here to talk to you about Johnny.”

Blaine takes care of the children. Watches over them, teaches them to sing celestial songs and all that. Guides them to eternal rest or to their next life. Keeps them company until they’re ready to move on. Summoning the ghosts of children is frowned upon, all but banned for mediums. But summoning the ghosts that take care of children is not. Blaine’s never said why he works with children, but Sebastian suspects it has to do with Blaine’s soft heart, his kind nature, his desire to always help. That has always shone through every time Blaine shows up.

Sebastian acts as a medium for Blaine and Johnny’s parents. He repeats the questions Johnny’s parents have, and relays Blaine’s answers back. Blaine is good at what he does; he knows how Johnny’s doing, reassures his parents that Johnny loves them, that Johnny knows they love him. Johnny understands what’s going on, he understands what happened, he isn’t mad that they never did manage that Disneyland trip.

Sebastian’s clients leave happy, assured that their kid’s in good, if ghostly, hands. And then it’s just Blaine and Sebastian, in the bright and airy room that Sebastian meets his clients in. The light pours in from large windows, there’s a comfortable couch for his clients, the desk where Sebastian keeps his laptop and notes and supplies, and there’s the most important part of the room, an upright piano on the edge. The piano is for Blaine.

“How are you doing?” Sebastian asks. He steps to the piano, taps out a melody with his right hand, and listens as Blaine settles beside him and begins to play a harmony. It’s the song that Blaine manifested with, this time. Sebastian’s never heard it before today, but he’s gotten good at picking out the melodies of the songs Blaine sings to him.

“Good.” Blaine’s mouth curves up in the corners. He always smiles, Sebastian plays the song Blaine sings. “I missed you, the other day.”

Sebastian stops playing. “Did someone else summon you?”

“Just Wes.” He laughs. He takes over the melody, tapping out a song on the keys. It’s a different song, probably the one he played for Wes. “Don’t be jealous.”

Sebastian is not jealous. “We don’t talk enough as is.”

“Well, that’s what happens when one of us is a ghost.”

Sebastian listens to the song Blaine is playing. There’s something familiar in it; most of the songs Blaine sings to Wes have the same thread in them, unlike when Blaine visits Sebastian. Sebastian’s been given a myriad of songs already. Wes gets variations on the same melody.

The first time Sebastian met Blaine was through Wes. He wasn’t sure what to think of the serious but friendly Asian man who summoned ghosts with burnt offerings of agarwood incense. But Wes offered to show Sebastian what he did, even though grieving parents didn’t seem like Sebastian’s sort of thing. One séance had been enough to shift Sebastian’s entire career trajectory. He’s never regretted it.

Blaine finishes the song. He goes back to the one he sang for Sebastian today, the one he sang when he arrived. It’s sweet, fond, affectionate. Wordless, but Sebastian can hear the sentiment. Still, he needs to know—

“Would you come,” Sebastian asks, “if I call?”

Blaine looks confused. “Yes.”

“Even if there aren’t any clients?”

Blaine says, slowly, “I have to take care of the kids.”

It’s the reason Sebastian works with parents, not husbands or wives. Parents, and not old ones either. Young ones, with young dead. Blaine isn’t the only one who cares for kids, but he’s the only one Sebastian summons.

“I know,” Sebastian says. He knows that Blaine has his duties.

“But I would,” Blaine says, even as he begins to fade, called back to his duties: his kids, his wards. “For you, Sebastian…”

Sebastian watches as Blaine fades. The candles in the room gutter out. The incense that permeated the room fades. It’s just Sebastian, alone on a piano bench, in an empty room. There are candles to put away, stubs of incense to clean. There’s notes to make, a follow-up survey to send out, duties that _Sebastian_ has, in this line of work.

But there’s still a song in the back of his head, a song that Blaine gave him. He lets it ring between his ears, and dances.

**Author's Note:**

> ❤️ Enjoyed it? Try the following options:
> 
>   * Follow me on twitter [@virdant](http://virdant.twitter.com)
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> 



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